Macchia Family History

Italian: topographic name from macchia ‘thicket scrub’ (from Latin macula) or a habitational name from any of various places notably in central southern Italy named with this word such as Macchia in Trapani province Sicily.

Scrub country was notorious as a hiding place for bandits and this may be the true meaning of the surname.

In some instances it may be a nickname from the same term used in the sense ‘curious type odd fellow’.

Compare La Macchia.